Spell development (Lorica)
Derivation of a spell There are certain formulaic steps needed for producing a spell, at least with regards to low magic. 1. Plan a script Each spell has a script - a formulaic outline of what the spell does and exactly how it does that. Spell components such as which variables to use and which operants to use (see Magia composita (Lorica)) come in at this point. Proofreading the script to make sure everything will go exactly the way you want it is highly necessary. 2. Prepare the spell components Only certain materials can anchor certain types of stars (the smallest unit of a spell) and functional groups. Depending on what the spell is meant to do and in what substance it is expected to take place, differing types of spells will be chosen for use. Take for example the typical artifact find that a person makes that almost instantly propels them on the path to becoming a rogue mage: the discovery of an awakened material far from civilization. An awakened material is an object (not necessarily solid) with attached and "living" stars, which when it comes in contact with certain other materials it causes that other material to gain its own properties, much like a prion does. This other object is a sleeping material with respect to this particular strain of stars in the awakened material: sleeping clay can easily become "awakened" when it comes in contact with awakened clay, but not if in contact with charged bark, because clay is an inert environment for stars that hold residence in bark. The royal metals (silver, gold and platinum) are sleeping to no awakened material. So starting with one awakened material, a mage can propagate those stars to similar materials merely by touching them, thus creating a large body of materials that can be used in creating a spell. Variables, operants and spell cores must all be assembled from scratch (or from any pure source charged with it). As a result many royal spells are based on the same components where components are reusable (such as variables labeled var1, var2, var3, etc.) These must be assembled isolated from everything else until they are complete, otherwise other parts may and will interfere, resulting in the creation of undesirable spell components. 3. Combine the spell components Spell components are of course also living stars, and materials that hold spell components are also charged. They can be spread as well to similar material (and water is generally a very desirable medium of transfer), faster when 1) the material is heated or vibrated and 2) the material is dissolved or ground. Hence, dissolving the charged material into water is a highly preferred method of spell component transfer. Connecting similar materials with different stars combines them into the same material. A spell will often have dozens if not thousands of components that must individually be combined together through this process (which is not tedious at all). The idea is to combine all but the critical initiation component into the mix. It quickly becomes obvious that solutes in water is the way to go, leading to the term "Potion". 4. Activation The activation of the spell occurs when the spell initiator is added to the mix. For much low magic, the spell initiator is yet another spell component, but specifically the very first one or a key step. For high magic, the spell initiator may be a word that activates another spell specifically meant for transmitting a verbal command. Should the spell be designed to abandon the material, the charged material will become uncharged and be the "dregs" (waste products) of the spell. Category:Magic